Well, he did it again. Curator Pierce Rafferty's exhibition at the Henry L. Ferguson Museum at Fishers Island, N.Y., titled "Coming and Going: A History of transportation to Fishers Island" was absolutely fabulous, but then anything Rafferty puts on is not to be missed. The museum is extremely fortunate in having such a fine curator with such interesting ideas and business acumen.

As visitors to the exhibit will learn, the first ferries to the island were established in New London in 1872 to carry day-trippers back and forth. Then in 1877, the Fox family, who had bought the island from the Winthrops, established the Mansion House for boarders, and thus the 42-foot steamer "Cignet" ran between the Pequot house in New London, the Edgecomb house in Groton and Fishers Island.

The Lyles Beach Hotel opened in 1882, with large paddle steamers arriving on a regular basis, as well as going to Block Island, with a capacity of 900.

Tammany Hall leader Boss Tweed's yacht "Julia," which belonged to the Lyles Beach group, also came to the island.

Then Edmund and Walton Ferguson took over, having purchased the island, and all excursion steamers were banned. The Fergusons established the Fishers Island Navigation Co.

One can see pictures of the steamer "Munnatawket," and former military sub chasers "Islander" and "Ranger."

In 1947, the Fishers Island Ferry District was established, and the familiar MV Mystic Isle, which is now in Miami where it was sunk to create an artificial reef after it was seized for carrying tons of marijuana. The ferries are still going strong, with more passengers than ever, but there were still many fabulous private boats, a number used to ferry their owners to New York for business.

"Genie" belonged to Colby Chester, a Greenwichite, whose granddaughter, Penni Sharp, is president of the museum. Robert P. Lindeman owned an electric launch "Spatic" in 1902. The batteries were kept at Fishers Island and New London.

Charles D. Rafferty, the curator's grandfather, owned the commuter yacht "Stroller." Jeremiah Milbank took himself to New York from Fishers Island or Greenwich on the magnificent "Jem." The boat was impounded for service during the war, but it was also used to visit daughter Margaret and husband Lawrence Bogert at Fishers Island.

"Cristobel," all 164 tons of her, which belonged to Walton Ferguson, came to the island from the Mediterranean where it used to be chartered. She was a fabulous boat and had also been chartered to the Kaiser of Germany.

Upon returning from a lovely afternoon under my umbrella looking at the waves, I turned on the computer to see what's happening in our town. I shouldn't have. It seems that finally it has occurred to some to wonder what the long-term effects on the school population will be and the future viability of the Greenwich High School site itself, according to my co-columnist Bob Horton.

Of course, I have been talking about this for several years, ever since those misguided souls fought so hard for MISA, or the music instruction space and auditorium project.

Horton also brings up the economic hit headed for those unlucky enough to have property next to the high school. Evidently, there is a federally mandated deed restriction filed on the high school property "forever identifying it as a toxic waste dump, as the cleanup plan involved capping the toxins under clean soil and leaving the poisons to leech forever through the swamp and peat bog that lies under most of school property and drains through its southeast corner."

All this severely limits the popularity of a house for sale next to the high school property, to say nothing of contaminated water going into the Sound. Some of us have known about this since the school was built, but everyone thought we were crazy. Perhaps not.

Norma Bartol, a former Greenwich Time reporter and columnist, lives in the backcountry. Her column appears on alternating Fridays. Her email address is normamrfi@gmail.com" .